DETROIT, MI -- Raising enrollment and executing three more years of a deficit elimination plan are keys to getting Detroit Public Schools healthy again, Emergency Manager Jack Martin said Monday as he announced a bit of good news for the district.

A federal "high-risk" designation that came after a 2008 audit -- costing it grant opportunities, flexibility and independence -- has been withdrawn, Martin announced.

"Under high-risk status, there were grants that were unavailable that we will now be able to apply for, and funders who may have questioned our ability to manage grants properly can have renewed confidence in the district that we will be good stewards of the money that we receive," Martin said in a news conference at Burton International Academy.

But the development doesn't get the district out from under emergency management.

Martin, the district's third emergency manager since the state took over in 2009, said he hopes to be the last.

"I don't know that that's going to happen, but I think that we're on the proper trajectory," he said. "We still have challenges. We need to further increase enrollment to reduce the deficit. So that's going to be a continued focus of the district."

He said district's accumulated deficit stands at around $80 million and estimates that it'll take another three years to eliminate it.

In addition to widening grant eligibility, withdrawal of the high-risk status will allow Martin and administrators to make financial decisions and craft school improvement plans with further approval from the state.

"This recognizes the sustained actions taken by emergency managers Robert Bobb, Roy Roberts, and now Jack Martin, with the cooperation of labor, for the systemic changes instituted over the past five years to help get the district on firmer ground financially and with their academic programs," state Superintendent Mike Flanagan said in a statement.

Martin said he intends to be "just as vigilant off of high-risk status as we were on high-risk status."

"The district has turned around, and I think that if we can deal with the deficit issue, it'll be fine," he said.

The district had 48,962 students, according to an Oct. 23 count, 1.7 percent less than a year prior.

Officials said that's an improvement from past annual losses of over 10 percent, and that newly enrolled high school students is at a three-year high.